Hellhole
Hellhole
R | 15 March 1985 (USA)
Hellhole Trailers

An unlucky woman’s mother is murdered by a scarf-wielding killer named Silk, leaving the woman injured, traumatised and suffering from amnesia. She’s committed to a mental institution, where Silk follows her, looking for the papers he was trying to get from her mother. And Silk’s only the beginning of her problems, since the asylum is run by a mad doctor, performing experiments in chemical lobotomies!

Reviews
WasAnnon

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

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Abbigail Bush

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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Nayan Gough

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

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Kaelan Mccaffrey

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

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Scott LeBrun

Objectively speaking, this B flick is a mess, with a sometimes incoherent screenplay by Aaron Butler. Judy Landers stars as Susan, a young woman who's forced to witness her mother being killed by gleeful thug "Silk" (a scenery chewing Ray Sharkey). While fleeing him, she has a bad fall, gets amnesia, and ends up confined to a mental institution for young women. And it just so happens that the mad doctor in charge, Fletcher (Mary Woronov), is up to no good, performing insidious lobotomy type experiments."Hellhole" is not without the charms common to such exercises in pure sleaze. This exploitation-melodrama-horror film comes complete with all of the girl ogling / female nudity that a trash lover could want. There's even a pointless mud bath sequence that one must assume was in there because the producers demanded it. There is some decent atmosphere, but there is practically no gore to speak of. Some viewers will have to prepare themselves for the fact that some story elements are introduced and then pretty much dropped: the "papers" that the bad guys controlling Silk want so badly come off as a MacGuffin.Making it all worth watching is a B movie cast to die for. Woronov gives easily the best performance in this thing, camping it up in her turn as the female villain. Sharkey is blatantly comical and offbeat as the psycho goon. She may be very sexy, but the less said about Landers' acting, the better. Also turning up are Marjoe Gortner, Richard Cox, Edy Williams, Robert Z'Dar (in his first film), Cliff Emmich, Lynn Borden, Dyanne Thorne, and Carole White. Cox is the nominal hero, a nice guy orderly who sympathizes with Susans' plight. Z'dar is amusing as a sadistic guard. Thornes' cameo as an inmate who thinks she's an actress is a highlight.Executive produced by A.I.P. legend Samuel Z. Arkoff, and co-produced by his son Lou.Six out of 10.

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megatone230

I remember first seeing this exploitation gem on HBO in the mid 80's, while spending the night at a friends house during 8th grade. It reminded me of a cheaper, dirtier Reform School Girls.Mary Woronov as the deliciously evil, Dr. Fletcher has some great moments. I especially love when she blows the state inspectors a kiss goodbye while they are leaving the hospital... (after nearly discovering her clandestine, underground chamber of horrors, known simply and ominously as Hell Hole.Lots of the actors look like rejects from a lame porno movie, and deliver their lines accordingly. One will find themselves alternately rolling their eyes and laughing their butts off while watching this.The movie also has one of those great, cheesy synthesizer soundtracks to add to the fun. If you enjoy watching a movie just to see how bad it is, filled with senseless violence, drugs and lesbian sex, then watch Hellhole.

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BaronBl00d

Judy Landers plays Susan. She jumps out of the shower, puts a pink aerobics outfit on, walks downstairs to seeing her mother strangled to death by Ray Sharkey(playing a killer named Silk). She runs out of house and into a construction site, meets up with Sharkey and falls. The fall doesn't kill her but gives her amnesia, so with some strings pulled by the man behind Silk's deeds - Susan is put into a sanatorium till she recovers her memory. Unfortunately for Susan, she is admitted to a mental institution run by Dr. Fletcher - the sultry Mary Woronov - who enjoys being sado-masochistic and experimenting on patients in a basement called Hellhole. The hospital is like no other. Most of the wards are playboy playmate caliber-looking girls. All of them disrobe quite freely. In fact this film has a lot of nudity in it with a cat-fight in the showers and a mud bath as standouts...anyway,...ah the mind wanders...Susan is being stalked by the man that killed her mother all the while learning about the atrocities committed by Dr. Fletcher. I found this film somewhat interesting for a number of reasons. It is outwardly a sleazy picture in many ways. It has a spin on the women-in-chains motif. Nudity and shock effects override storyline through much of it. The acting ranges from weird and bizarre(Sharkey) to competent(Richard Cox as the hero) to camp(Mary Woronov doing her best Dyanne Thorne impersonation) to less than credible(Judy Landers((but hey who cares right?))). There are a number of cool cameos by genre notables from the past. Terry Moore from Mighty Joe Young fame has a nice role, Marjoe Gortner has an intriguing yet thin role as a doctor in league with Woronov, and the aforementioned Dyanne Thorne has a brief cameo as a patient that thinks she is an actress. Director Pierre De Moro even has flashes of talent here and there. The opening sequence is somewhat chilling and the settings of Hellhole are very well-utilized in terms of atmosphere, lighting, etc... The ending is wholly predictable but somehow satisfying for a film of this ilk. But make no mistake, while outwardly a horror film, this is also a sexploitation film equally. Watch for Renee Vicary as Silk's girlfriend. Just lovely!

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evildead1978

...FROM THE ACADAMY OF IDIOTS!Actually, this movie is so entertaining - if you get a group of the right people, you can honestly make your own episode of Mystery Science Theater! Everything about it is so over-the-top bad there's really no way that you can't enjoy it! (For those of you out there whom have been lobotomized here comes some minor spoilers & points of interest)~ What is the best thing about this movie?? Ray Sharkey's hair? Judy Lander's "acting"? The size of Robert Z'Dar's face? The Rick Springfield 1980's super-cool doctor? The plot (none)? The mental institution that is over-run with Playmate looking patients? The fact that every single actress in this flick has no problem taking their clothes off at the drop of a hat? (Except Judy Landers...now that's a CRIME!) The list is endless...it must be seen to be believed...If these type of movies are your cup of tea, by all means check this one out..Oh yeah! Listen closely for Ray Sharkey's classic line of dialogue at the beginning: "Where'd you hide the papers...IN THE SAUCE??? HUH?!?!?"

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